States Should Lead The Fight Against Global Warming

At least this proposal appeals to my strong bias towards federalism.

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. – States should develop creative approaches to climate change, just as they have with challenges such as health care, despite their different economic interests, governors said Saturday.

“No individual state is going to solve the climate change problem, but we can do our part,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said. “In the absence of national or international consensus or progress, we have the opportunity to show the way.”

I like that — states do  tend to be more “creative” than the bureaucrats in Washington. In Gov. Pawlenty’s state of Minnesota, for example, they could creatively seek ways to address the global warming caused by the burps and farts emitted by their frickin’ dairy cattle.

Talks on state-level climate policy were planned for the annual National Governors Association meeting this weekend at a resort on Lake Michigan, where receding water levels have touched off debate over the effects of global warming on the Great Lakes.

Stephen Johnson, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and the European Union’s environmental affairs counselor joined the discussion. The EPA has clashed with some states that are pushing for greater authority to regulate greenhouse gases, particularly automobile exhaust emissions.

“With the states taking action, even if you don’t have 100 percent of America, you can have 40 or 50 percent or more, and that’s a good start,” Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell said. “We can’t just wait around for the federal government.”

Great idea, Eddie. Your smoggy industrial state should get cracking on this issue. Try the punitive regulatory approach. That will get your polluting (and job-creating) businesses to move somewhere else like, erm, Ohio.

Now, I’m not saying that my own state of Ohio should not chip in. No sirree Bob. We Ohioans should be in the vanguard of the effort to save our planet.

I have an idea. We should do this by planting a gajillion acres of corn  to eat up those greenhouse gases and produce a renewable alternative energy source to replace fossil fuels.

Huh? You say we already did that?

Heh.  I guess we can relax.

Governors address climate change – Yahoo! News